Contents

Gameplay

More than just a fiercer-looking palette swap of Queen Fossil with added aesthetics and weapons, Fire Fossil fights almost the same as Queen Fossil does overall, but with some key changes, such as the flamethrowers on his tail, and straight charges from the sides of the screen where he uses either his largest flamethrower weapon (left) or sprays destructible blue bullets and releases Orange Shield Thing enemies before a Beta Beam fires from his head (right). Other than that, the normal firing attack cycles are more rapid and intense as well as not having as many gaps.
Regardless of route, Fire Fossil starts out by presenting his tail to you. It would be worth sacrificing Grey Stripe or any capture you have to destroy that forked flame launcher scale in the center of his tail for a blue powerup; if not, damage it as much as you can. It WILL come flying out at you once, so be careful. The six surrounding flame cannons will be shooting small fire balls in succession. Damaging them would be a very good idea as well.

Now your route will choose which part of Fire Fossil you attack.

Area M

Choosing Area M will take you topside. Before you engage the first three cannons, one of the formations has a purple powerup. Blowing up the second razor fin will get you a green powerup. Destroying the gatling cannon gives you a red power up this time, and the three laser cannons above it now intermittently fire three-bullet spread shots along with the short, concussive and 90º lasers. The other set of fins holds a purple power up. Capture the new Gray Stripe captain when it emerges.
Fire Fossil takes the plunge after emerging, and strictly speaking, this is when the actual 'boss' confrontation begins. He charges you head-first now from the left and opens his mouth to fire his largest flamethrower. The scales then come off and encircle, only the sweeping lasers are closer with less in the way of gaps. As with Queen Fossil before, if you have lost the captain, then capture an Orange Shield Thing enemy, IMMEDIATELY charge and release your Alpha Beam to counter the first Beta Beam; otherwise, with the captain absorbed, avoid releasing your Counter Alpha Beam at the first Beta Beam as the fourth and final one will hold it back and you risk not being able to destroy Fire Fossil with it.
If you mess up on this, Fire Fossil presents his tail to you and a nasty flame line pattern fires along with flames from the middle of the tail. Then he angles into the background and fires missiles to the top and bottom while he heads off to the right. Look below to Area N for the pattern to expect next.

Area N

Choosing Area N will takes you to Fire Fossil’s underside, and there are more powerups overall to be had from this route. An arm will pivot down and open up to spray blue, destructible bullets at you. Destroying it will spawn both a red and a green power up. Then as Fire swings out to the background, he rolls and releases small formations of enemies that will show up from either side of the screen; the very first formation has an enemy with a purple power up to give you another capture ball. You also get a red power up from the second-to-last formation. When this is done and he comes back to the attack plane, this is a good time to charge up an Alpha Beam if you have a capture.

Fire Fossil will turn and angle straight down and release two containers with turrets that fire three-bullet streams and which fire missiles between them as they stagger back and forth. They take a lot of firepower to destroy, so using an Alpha Beam is the best method to destroy them, whereupon the top container gives you a green power up and the bottom container gives you a red power up. When they are either destroyed OR fly off, get away from the top half of the screen as Fire will come down all of a sudden after the alarm stops. A hatch opens on the underside more towards the front and a red laser cannon comes down into sight. Carefully be above it and as Fire bobs up and down, pelt that cannon with lasers and bombs until it is destroyed and you get a blue power up. Orange Shield Things and other little enemies drop and then comes a new Gray Stripe. Blow off its protective armor and capture it. Get all the way over to the left side of the screen.

Fire takes the plunge into the clouds after emerging, and strictly speaking, this is when the actual 'boss' confrontation begins. [Pattern after Area M starts here.] Coming at you from the right, destructible blue bullets will be sent out at you while the horn produces a cannon that charges and fires a normal Beta Beam. Following this, Fire presents his left side to you, opens it and extends four long laser cannons, with two gray ones on the ends that fire continuous lasers and two red ones in between them that will rapidly fire short lasers in succession. During this attack, small destructible bulbous missiles will come after you. When the attack ends, orange diamond shot spreads will fire in rapid triple bursts. Use Gray Stripe as a shield or dodge as needed. After the volley of missiles, Fire then presents his tail and a flamethrower burst that eventually encircles will take place. He angles into the background and fires missiles to the top and bottom while he heads off to the left.

Prepare for Fire to let loose with his largest flamethrower as he emerges from the left. After this, eight scales form a flower to protect him from your shots as orange diamond bullet arcs fire at you rapidly in succession. Eventually, that scale flower will fly right at you, so move out of the way at the right time. Then Fire opens his side as Orange Shield Thing enemies come out and two lines of orange diamond bullets fire, and this will happen three times. Make sure to grab a capture if you’ve lost Gray Stripe. Fire will turn and point his tail at you, and the six cannons let loose with fire trails. This is a very tricky attack pattern to get away from without taking a hit, but it is possible.

From this point, Fire angles to the background, releases the missiles from the top and bottom, and the pattern will repeat from the charge from the right. Grab a capture if needed, and release your Alpha Beam against the now Counter-size Beta Beam to take it in and pound away at Fire Fossil until he’s defeated or until the Beam runs out, at which point Fire will be severely weakened and about to be defeated shortly thereafter.